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Sports Endeavors Buys Rival Big Toe

Sports Endeavors, a Hillsborough, NC-based soccer and lacrosse gear cataloger, has acquired Madison, WI-based rival Big Toe Soccer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Big Toe had sales of roughly $10 million last year.

With $95 million in sales in 2004, Sports Endeavors is the nation’s number-one direct marketer of soccer gear. In addition to the Eurosport catalog, Sports Endeavors mails Team Eurosport, which targets teams and coaches rather than individual players; Keepersport, for soccer goalkeepers; and the Great Atlantic Lacrosse Co. It also operates the Soccer.com and Lacrosse.com e-commerce sites.

Sports Endeavors has already closed Big Toe’s Middleton store, which had been open for just one year. Published reports say that Sports Endeavors will be folding the Big Toe catalog as well, but company representatives refused to comment. Founded in 1994, Big Toe Soccer was purchased out of bankruptcy in 2000 by Madison, WI-based cookware company Hy Cite Corp.

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